Getting Ready For the First Speech

When I was told that our first speech was to be a reading from a book, I kind of laughed to myself and said, “I’m going to pick something dumb just to be funny.” I carried that mentality all the way up until the last class. We started talking about picking a story that will fit your character and voice, and choosing something that you can relate to. I do not really think Spongebob Squarepants really fits me, so I knew that I had to change what I was planning on doing for my first speech.

What did I do to figure out what I was going to do for my reading? You guessed it; I read the book for tips on choosing a topic for speeches. What I found in chapter 4 of the book was to choose something that you already know about. It says that people speak best when they speak about subjects that they already know a lot about. So what is something I know about more than anything in the world? Basketball. It was not too hard to find a book with basketball stories in it since my brother and I both play basketball and are big fans of the game. It was not long before I found a very interesting story about….. you don’t get to know just yet, wait for tomorrow. I think the story that I picked will be a story that will keep the attention of my audience because I know that most of the audience, if not all, has heard of Rio Grande College. This will give a chance for my audience to relate to my story, which is something that is very important if you want to keep the audience’s attention. I also read this in the book. Is it just me or is this book teaching us a lot? I am not a huge fan of homework, but this reading in the book is already paying off and I think that this will show tomorrow in class when we are all giving our speeches.

Student Blog

This blog is the collective work of students enrolled in the Fundamentals of Effective Speech Class at Southern State Community College South Campus. We invite you to add your voice to the conversation. Just click the "add comment' button to share your ideas and suggestions.